


Taking Charge (reupload)

by GothicDeetz



Category: Beetlejuice - All Media Types, Beetlejuice - Perfect/Brown & King
Genre: Baking, Bonding, Chaos, Cookies, Dead People, Families of Choice, Family, Family Bonding, Father Figures, Father-Daughter Relationship, Found Family, Fun, Gen, Ghosts, Long, Long Shot, Mother Figures, Multi, One Shot, Presents, Step-parents, Talking, Talking To Dead People, Tickle Fights, Tickling, Trouble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:15:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24777481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GothicDeetz/pseuds/GothicDeetz
Summary: The Maitlands take care of Lydia while Charles and Delia spend a day out of town.
Relationships: Lydia Deetz & Adam Maitland & Barbara Maitland
Kudos: 7





	Taking Charge (reupload)

“Now, Lydia,” Charles said as he and Delia stood by the front door of the house. “Do you promise to be on your best behavior for the Maitlands?”

“I promise!” she shouted as she dashed past them into the kitchen.

Charles smiled and turned his attention over towards the Maitlands, who were standing on the stairs and looking down towards him and Delia. This was going to be a pretty hectic day long job of looking after Lydia themselves, so the Maitlands knew what to expect. Plenty, plenty, plenty of chaos for starters. They knew how chaotic the teenager was, especially when Betelgeuse was by her side.

“Are you guys sure you’re up to watching over Lydia for us until we get back later tonight?” asked Charles, a hint of concern present in the tone of his voice. “I know how chaotic she can be and I don’t want to hear that she’s caused trouble for you guys at all today.”

“We’ll do our best to make sure she doesn’t cause any trouble,” said Adam.

Barbara nodded in agreement and gave Charles a brightened smile. “Mhm, we have plenty of fun things planned where she won’t cause any trouble. Isn’t that right, Adam, dear?”

“That’s right.”

“Great, well, we’ll see you guys tonight and we can’t wait to hear about how well behaved Lydia has been for you guys,” said Charles as he and Delia began to head out the door.

“Lydia!” Adam shouted. “Come say goodbye to your dad and stepmother!”

Lydia peeked her head around the corner of the kitchen and waved to her dad and to Delia as they exited the house. “Bye, dad! Bye, Delia! See you tonight!”

“Bye, Lydia!” they both shouted back. And with that, they closed the front door behind them and got into the car. Soon after, Lydia got a text from Delia that read,

‘Tell the Maitlands that we’ll be bringing back gifts for both you and them. The gifts will be a surprise. We can’t wait to give them to you guys when we get back.’

Lydia texted back, ‘Okay.’

She ran back into the kitchen where the Maitlands were sat and waiting patiently for her to join them. As soon as she sat herself down, Barbara summoned a bowl of cereal and a glass of orange juice and placed it down in front of Lydia, watching with a smile on her face as the teen began to eat it. She was done within five minutes of receiving it, as she picked up her bowl and glass and placed them in the sink before turning and facing her ghost parents.

“So?” she asked with a huge grin on her face. “What are we doing first?”

* * *

In the middle of watching some tv with Adam and Barbara, Lydia had gotten bored and had decided to go into the kitchen and grab a lot of kitchen utensils and pots and pans from the cupboards. She sat herself down on the floor with everything she’d gathered in front of her and she picked up a spoon and began to hit a pan with it.

She hoped the Maitlands didn’t hear what she was doing, but nope. Adam and Barbara teleported themselves out of the living room and they reappeared behind an unaware Lydia, looking down at her with unamused looks on their faces and their hands on their hips.

“Ahem!” said Barbara as she and Adam made all the pots, pans, and kitchen utensils that Lydia was playing with resort themselves right back into the correct cupboards. “Should you be doing that, young lady?”

But Lydia just gave her a small pout then said, “Yes?”

“I think the answer you’re meaning to give us is “No”, Lydia,” reprimanded Adam as he helped Lydia up and led her back into the living room with Barbara following closely behind. “Now let’s watch some more tv and not go and play drums with the stuff in the kitchen, okay?”

“Fine!” Lydia grumbled, plopping herself down on the couch and folding her arms as she refocused her attention back over towards the tv.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, the Maitlands turned off the tv and got up. That’s when they noticed something, or rather someone, was missing from the room. They looked around for Lydia and sighed in unison when they found little to no sign of the teenager anywhere.

“Adam? Have you seen Lydia anywhere?”

“No,” he admitted. “I haven’t. Have you?”

They heard a loud crash come from upstairs and they rushed up the stairs as quickly as they could. There, they rushed into Lydia’s bedroom where they found Lydia laying on her back on her bedroom floor and she was looking up at them from where she was laying and laughing sheepishly as she tried to right herself. Adam and Barbara fully entered the room and together, they helped Lydia up and sat her down on top of her bed.

“Lydia?” asked Barbara as she began to run a transparent hand through the teenager’s hair. “Is everything okay? You’re not hurt, are you?”

“I’m fine!” said Lydia with a laugh. “I’m not hurt, you guys. That was just a little fall.”

“Lydia,” said Adam as he checked her over for injuries. “That was a little more than just a little fall. Barbara and I could hear it all the way downstairs. You sure you’re okay?”

“I said I was fine, Adam.”

Adam stopped when he noticed that there was a bleeding injury on Lydia’s back, most likely from her fall. He turned to Barbara with a panicked look on his face.

“Is something wrong, honey?”

“Lydia’s got a small, bleeding cut on her back,” said Adam in a hurry. “Could you summon a first aid kit and get out a bandaid to use to properly cover it?”

“Already doing it!”

She summoned a first aid kit out of thin air and opened it up to grab out a few bandages. Adam instructed Lydia to lay down on top of her bed and when she did, Barbara sat down next to her and applied one of the bandages to Lydia’s wound. With Lydia’s wound properly covered, the teenager put her Black dress back on and sat up, giving both of her ghost parents a hug.

“Thank you, you guys,” she said with a smile on her face.

“You’re very welcome, Lyds,” replied Adam with a wink.

“What were you even doing up here anyway, Lydia?” asked Barbara with a look of confusion on her face. She helped Lydia up and began to lead her towards the door of her bedroom with Adam following closely behind.

“I got bored of sitting down on the couch and watching tv,” said Lydia with a slight laugh. “So I came upstairs to grab my camera to take some pictures of the daytime sky and that’s when I ended up falling over because I was standing on a chair in order to reach my camera.”

“Oh, okay. Want to go downstairs again? I feel like we should bake some cookies for your dad and stepmother when they get back home tonight,” said Barbara as she, Adam, and Lydia exited Lydia’s bedroom and went downstairs to the kitchen. “How does that sound, hm?”

“I’d like to do that with you guys,” said Lydia.

“Okay,” replied Adam with a sigh. “As long as you don’t cause any trouble while we’re baking, Lydia.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t.”

* * *

The three of them, both ghosts and single living girl, stood together in the kitchen with all the ingredients that they would need to make the cookies for Charles and Delia in front of them. It was after lunchtime and, since it was after twelve in the afternoon when they came downstairs from checking on Lydia, making sure she was okay, and bandaging up the wound she had gotten from falling after attempting to reach for her camera, they had initially decided to make Lydia her lunch. They had to let Charles and Delia know what had happened to Lydia when they got back and they knew they weren’t going to be pleased in the slightest but they still had to let them know.

“Okay,” said Barbara as she examined the ingredients one last time. She summoned a cookbook out of thin air and opened it up, flipping through the pages until she got to the cookie page. She scanned the page carefully then turned to address a waiting Lydia. “The first ingredient we need is two eggs. Lydia, could you crack two eggs please?”

“Got it!” said Lydia. She picked up two eggs and one after the other, she cracked both eggs and turned to face her ghost mother with a smile on her face. “Done!”

“Great!” said Barbara as she refocused her attention on the floating cookbook in front of her. “Next, we need some flour. Two cups of it.”

“On it!” Lydia poured two cups of flour into the mixing bowl and turned to face Barbara again. “What’s next, Barb?”

“A cup of milk.”

Lydia nodded, pouring a cup of milk into the mixing bowl. “What’s next?” she repeated, turning to look over at Barbara again.

“Well, we’re going to be making sugar cookies, so the last ingredient we need to make these is a few teaspoons of sugar.”

Lydia smiled, pouring a few teaspoons of sugar into the mixing bowl and mixing it up good. She scooped the batter up and plopped it onto the tray in circular shapes then put it into the oven.

“Now?” Lydia asked with a smile as she and her ghost parents reentered the living room of the house. “What should we do while we wait for the sugar cookies to bake?”

* * *

They ended up having a large tickle fight in the amount of time it took the sugar cookies to fully bake. The sugar cookies were now cooling and the three of them resumed their tickle fight while they waited for the cookies to cool. Adam was currently tickling both Lydia and Barbara at the same time and the three of them were laughing loudly together.

“I’m gonna get you!” Adam shouted as Lydia and Barbara both managed to escape his grip and were now running around the room while still laughing their heads off. It was one thirty in the afternoon right now and ten minutes ago, Lydia had gotten a text from her dad that said that he and Delia were going to be back around seven in the evening, a lot earlier than the time they’d originally said they were going to get back home.

“Oh no you’re not!” Lydia and Barbara shout in unison as they exit the living room and run into the kitchen together. They laugh even louder as Adam too exited the living room and caught up to Lydia.

He tackled Lydia to the ground and began tickling her, causing her to laugh even louder. Barbara sat herself down next to her husband and began tickling Lydia as well.

“Look!” she shouted with glee. “We both got you, Lyds!”

“Yeah.” Lydia’s laughing slowed just a little bit. “I guess you guys did.”  
  


* * *

It was three in the afternoon when the three of them finally got tired of their tickle fight. They were now all sitting in the living room together, sitting in chairs and reading novels. Barbara was reading a happy novel, Adam was reading a sci fi novel, and Lydia was reading a supernatural novel. Eventually, Lydia had gotten bored of reading, getting up, putting the book she was reading down, and heading into the kitchen to grab herself something to eat and drink.

She poured herself a glass of milk and grabbed a sugar cookie, sitting herself down at the kitchen counter and happily eating. The Maitlands looked over towards her and smiled, putting down their books and exiting the living room to join Lydia in the kitchen.

“You tired of reading, Lydia?” asked Barbara as she and Adam sat themselves down next to the teenager.

“Yeah!” she admitted as she put down her cookie. “I was hungry so I came in here to grab a cookie and a glass of milk.”

“Remember,” said Adam with a laugh. “Those cookies are for you to share with your dad and your stepmother. You can’t have them all.”

“I know that, Adam!” Lydia laughed. “I wasn’t planning on even eating them all anyway.”

“Okay, okay.”

* * *

It was seven in the evening, the time that Charles and Delia said that they were going to be back home from their daylong trip out of town. Minute after minute passed and Lydia had started to pace around the front foyer of the house. It wasn’t like her dad and Delia to be late, especially since it was after when they said they were going to be home.

“They can’t be this late,” complained Lydia with a sigh. It was true, the time was now seven thirty so Charles and Delia were half an hour late.

“I’m sure they’ll be back soon,” said Barbara, resting a hand on Lydia’s back as soon as she stopped pacing and stood right next to Barbara as she waited for her dad and Delia to get home.

Lydia got a text from Delia that read,

‘We’ll be home in five minutes. Can’t wait to see you.’

“Oh, before I forget,” Lydia said, suddenly remembering something that was vitally important. “Delia said that she and my dad were bringing gifts home each for us.”

Adam and Barbara looked at each other and smiled. They couldn’t wait to see what their gifts were and they also couldn’t wait to see what Lydia’s was.

Five minutes passed and Lydia turned upon hearing the sound of the front door opening and eventually, Charles and Delia entered the house. Delia carried a bag in her hand and entered the kitchen, setting down the bag and reentering the front foyer of the house.

“What’s my gift?” Lydia asked so suddenly and immediately, getting all up in Delia’s face.

“Woah, woah,” Delia said with a slight laugh. “Calm down, Lydia. You and the Maitlands will be getting your gifts soon enough. Please be patient.”

“She hasn’t caused any trouble for you guys, has she?” asked Charles as the family of five entered the kitchen and sat down together.

“Well,” said Adam as he looked nervously to the side. “There was this one time when she got out a bunch of stuff in the kitchen and started playing drums with it.”

Charles laughed. “She can do that if she wants to. It’s not her being troublesome at all. She used to do it all the time when her mother was still alive. Sometimes even Emily herself would join in. Those times were so funny. I think it’s something she likes to do to remember her mother.”

“Oh...”

Delia opened the bag she’d brought with her and handed out her gifts. A skull necklace for Lydia, a porcelain tea cup for Barbara and some new paints for Adam to use for his model.

Lydia put on her skull necklace and proudly showed it off to Delia. “Thank you so much, stepmother,” she said as she gave Delia a hug.

“And thank you for our gifts,” said Adam and Barbara in unison.

“You guys are all welcome,” said Delia. She was glad that Lydia, Adam, and Barbara all liked their gifts.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked this one shot. Please leave kudos and a comment if you did. :).


End file.
